The African Development Bank (AfDB) says the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is expected to positively impact 26 million people in South Africa and generate more than 6,000 jobs over the next six years in Lesotho.
AfDB also expects the project to boost transfer capacity between Lesotho and South Africa to 1,260 million cubic meters every year once completed.
In a statement announcing the approval of a loan of $86.72 million to co-finance the second phase of the LHWP, the continental bank noted that the multi-phase project will provide water to the water-insecure Gauteng region of South Africa and generate hydroelectricity for neighbouring Lesotho.
The project, Development Diaries understands, entails harnessing the waters of the Senqu/Orange River in the Lesotho highlands by constructing a series of dams that delivers water to the Vaal Dam in South Africa.
‘The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority, a state-owned entity in South Africa charged with financing and implementing bulk raw water infrastructure projects, will use the funds to construct the Polihali Dam and reservoir, a 38 kilometer-long water transfer tunnel, roads and bridges, telecommunications infrastructure, and to extend electricity and other development infrastructure to Lesotho’, the AfDB statement read.
‘The new construction will complement facilities built during the project’s first phase. The Lesotho Highland Development Authority will implement the part of the project that falls within Lesotho’s borders’.
Lesotho’s economy, according to the bank, is also expected to receive a boost from the royalty payments it will receive for water transfers from South Africa. More than 85,000 people in the Lesotho project area are expected to benefit from the LHWP.
The landlocked nation has identified hydropower, wind generation, and solar power as potential renewable energy sources with the country being able to potentially produce 450 megawatts in hydropower and several hundred more with wind power.
South Africa – an economically much stronger but water scarce nation – is expected to receive about 70 cubic meters of water per second to the industrial province of Gauteng in South Africa.
The LHWP is also expected to enable additional generation of hydroelectric power in Lesotho.
‘The two governments’ partnership on this project around the shared water resources from the Orange-Senqu River Basin serves the interests of their mutual development agenda and also deepens regional integration’, the AfDB Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, Beth Dunford, said.
‘The intervention will be the first major project to be financed by the bank in the water sector in South Africa and it will complement the bank’s current support in the energy and transport sector, diversify the bank’s portfolio and consolidate the bank’s strong partnership with the country’.
Total cost of the project is U.S. $2.171 billion, with the Shanghai-based New Development Bank providing $213.68 million in loans and the South African government contributing a loan of $1.871 billion.
The first phase of the project was completed in 2003 and inaugurated in 2004, while the second phase is expected to be completed in 2026.
Source: AfDB
Photo source: AfDB
